The ongoing woes of George Calombaris

Aside from defending himself in Court last week for an
altercation at a football game, celebrity chef and restaurateur,
George Calombaris, continues to deal with the issue of widespread
underpayments to staff at various eateries.

An audit of the chefs
enterprises earlier this year discovered payroll issues that
resulted in over 150 current and previous employees having been
underpaid. It must be stated that the discovery was voluntarily
advised to the Fair Work Ombudsman and many of those employees had
those underpayments corrected at that time.

However, numerous claims remain unresolved at this time and the
Ombudsman's office is "concerned" at the timetable and length of
time it is taking to correct the outstanding underpayments. "While
we appreciate that large scale reconciliations can take
considerable time and resources, we do not believe it is reasonable
for former employees to have to wait this long to receive wages
owed to them", a spokesperson for the Ombudsman's office said.

Workforce
Guardian CEO, Sean Wilson, says that "companies have an
obligation to correct discovered underpayments, and in a timely
fashion. The Ombudsman's office has investigative powers and can
prosecute a company it believes is dragging its feet. Employees can
take such claims to court as well. It can end up in a time
consuming mess served with a headache for businesses".

Wilson went on to say that "while oversights and errors can
occur, the best cure is prevention. Knowing exactly what to pay
along with understanding the idiosyncrasies of each particular
Modern Award will generally prevent an employer from getting it
wrong. Our clients only need to pick up the phone or send an email
and we can help them to understand what their obligations are".